The present invention relates generally to the field of computer software, and more particularly, methods and systems for testing and monitoring quality and performance of systems. The systems may include loosely coupled systems, such as web-based systems and business-to-business (B2B) systems.
The advent of the Internet has led to the proliferation of loosely coupled systems. These systems use the connectivity provided by the Internet to collaborate to achieve a common business goal. Many businesses rely on such systems to make their products available to existing as well as potential customers over the Internet. For example, web-based systems offer businesses the ability to reach a large audience and offer new services with reduced time-to-market, while B2B systems allow several businesses to collaborate to achieve common business objectives. To stay competitive, businesses strive to develop and offer new services faster than their competitors. As the time-to-market for these businesses shorten, the data as well as the software that implements these systems may change frequently. Unfortunately, such frequent changes may introduce new defects or software bugs. These defects or software bugs may cause certain services to be inaccessible or fail, resulting in loss of sales and revenue for businesses.
To verify the quality and stability of these loosely coupled systems, it is essential to monitor the systems on a periodic basis or wait until an end user experiences a failure with a system and reports the failure. Accordingly, there is a need to monitor and periodically test such systems to reduce downtime as well as testing costs.
One known method for testing a Graphical User Interface (GUI) of a system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,600,789 (xe2x80x9cthe ""789 patentxe2x80x9d) and U.S. Pat. No. 5,781,720 (xe2x80x9cthe ""720 patentxe2x80x9d), both of which are titled xe2x80x9cAutomated GUI interface testing.xe2x80x9d The method simulates in the GUI user events that are predefined in the form of test scripts written in a high level language. Some of the disadvantages of this method are that it is only applicable to testing the GUI of a system, and the testing is based on predefined events. Further, the method does not continuously monitor the system and notify an administrator of any detected changes in the system.
Another known method for testing a web-based system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,144,962 (xe2x80x9cthe ""962 patent), titled xe2x80x9cVisualization of web sites and hierarchical data structures.xe2x80x9d A similar method is also described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,958,008 (xe2x80x9cthe ""008 patent), titled xe2x80x9cSoftware System and associated methods for scanning and mapping dynamically-generated web documents.xe2x80x9d Both methods graphically map a topology of a web site and detect changes in the web site by comparing a current graphical map of the web site with a previously captured graphical map. One disadvantage of these methods is that they detect only limited changes to the overall topology of the web site.
To overcome the above and other disadvantages of the prior art, methods and systems are provided for monitoring the quality and performance of loosely coupled systems. In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, a loosely coupled system, which may include objects and associated information about the objects, may be monitored as follows: One or more actions performed on one or more of the objects may be detected and recorded along with the objects and the associated information. The recorded actions may then be played back by retrieving from the system the objects and the associated information corresponding to the recorded objects, and if the retrieved information corresponding to the recorded objects on which the recorded actions are performed match the corresponding recorded information, performing the recorded actions on the corresponding retrieved objects. The results of the play back may then be used to detect one or more changes, if any, in the system.
Furthermore, additional actions may be generated based on the recorded objects on which the recorded actions are performed and the associated recorded information. These additional actions may be generated in accordance with information provided by, for example, a user. If the retrieved information corresponding to the recorded objects on which the recorded actions are performed match the corresponding recorded information, the additional actions may then be played by performing the additional actions on the corresponding retrieved objects. The results of the play back may then be used to detect one or more changes, if any, in the system.
The description of the invention and the following description for carrying out the best mode of the invention should not restrict the scope of the claimed invention. Both provide examples and explanations to enable others to practice the invention. The accompanying drawings, which form part of the description for carrying out the best mode of the invention, show an embodiment of the invention, and together with the description, explain the principles of the invention.